School Board member Nancy Stacy unveils a cost-cutting plan

Published: Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 5:25 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 5:25 p.m.

School Board member Nancy Stacy unveiled a cost-saving plan on Thursday that she said would save the jobs of most of the 160 laid off teachers.

Despite sharing her ideas — many of which were controversial — at Thursday's work session, no formal vote was taken. Formal votes are only taken at board meetings.

The consensus of the board was to discuss the ideas further at two August budget workshops before the final vote on the budget occurs on Sept. 10.

That makes it doubtful the jobs of the 160 teachers and 101 other employees who were laid off on May 31 will be saved in time for the start of school on Aug. 19.

And as the summer rolls along, and the board discusses alternative ways to plug a $29 million funding gap, dozens of the affected teachers have already taken jobs in other states and surrounding counties such as Sumter, Citrus and Alachua. Stacy asked the board to commit to a plan in hopes to keep the good teachers in Marion.

Though Stacy was cheered on occasion by upset teachers attending Thursday's work session, some of her ideas drew audible gasps from the same people.

Stacy suggested that employees could clean their own schools, and that employees who have single health insurance plans — as opposed to couples or family coverage — start paying a premium. Currently, the district pays full cost for employees who have single coverage.

Stacy wants to create a cheaper free option, which would have a higher deductible and cost the employee more in out-of-pocket expenses.

"I'm not willing to throw employees out the door," School Board Chairman Ron Crawford said, adding many of the employees are not making very high salaries and need the health benefits. An exact cost savings is unknown and will depend on quotes from insurance carriers.

Stacy also wants to stop paying for employees' life insurance benefit, which would be a savings of $800,000 districtwide.

She also suggested:

• Principals and psychologists be placed on 11-month contracts instead of 12-month deals.

• Conduct a salary study to see if employees are getting paid too much in certain jobs, like painters.

• Force assistant principals to start sharing schools.

Stacy said all of her recommended cuts, if enacted now for 2013-14, could be reverted back in 2014-15 if funds are available. Though the cuts may not be ideal, she said it could keep teachers in the classroom.

"There has to be ways to find this money ($29 million)," she said, adding each board member and administrator has sacred areas of the budget they don't want to cut. "My sacred cow is teachers."

Crawford said though he supports teachers, he is concerned Stacy is not looking out for the other 101 employees, including 72 teacher's aides, who also lost their jobs.

Stacy also suggested the district consider outsourcing custodial services at every school. Currently, the board outsources the service at about a quarter of its 51 schools.

Outsourcing had been the route the district was heading. That was until about a year ago, when Crawford received phone calls from principals about filthy schools. He said many of the contracted cleaning services were not doing the job.

Crawford has since been leading a charge to bring the custodial service back in-house countywide, even though it costs between $40,000 and $60,000 more per school when compared to outsourcing.

Stacy said the district could save $2 million if school cleaning was all outsourced, and even more if employees cleaned schools.

Crawford and board member Angela Boynton disagreed with cutting back on cleanliness. Boynton stated children deserve to learn in a healthy environment.

The board did agree to remove one assistant principal position from each of the following three high schools: Forest, Lake Weir and West Port. Now, every high school will have only two assistant principals, no matter the school size.

Stacy also suggested shutting down magnet programs, specifically the prestigious International Baccalaureate at Vanguard and Lake Weir high schools, or at least charging students to attend.

That was after she learned it costs the district about $250,000 to operate the programs.

"I would rather give up programs than give up teachers," she said.

Unlike last week, when she called district administrators power-hungry kings and queens who waste taxpayer money, Stacy thanked School Superintendent George Tomyn and his staff on Thursday for working hard on the budget.

"I think we're getting there, but we're just not there yet," she said.

When Stacy jabbed the administration during the meeting, the audience of mostly teachers clapped and laughed. That was until board member Bobby James spoke forcibly to the crowd.

James said all of the board members support the teachers, not just Stacy. James said the difference is that he will not promise to save everyone's job until he knows where the district stands.

On Tuesday, the board will vote on Tomyn's updated staffing plan. The new one does not include vacant positions.